


It's as Easy as One, Two, Three...

by flibbertygigget



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (sort of), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Creature Inheritance, Creature Severus Snape, Explosions, Gen, Morally Ambiguous Dumbledore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 15:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: In which Severus Snape is a djinn. This changes both more and less than what you would expect.





	It's as Easy as One, Two, Three...

_Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell_  
_Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings_  
_A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time._  
_The mind is its own place, and in it self_  
_Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n._  
_What matter where, if I be still the same,_  
_And what I should be._

_\- John Milton, Paradise Lost_

A long time ago, a foolish young man named Aladdin had wished for a djinn to make him a Prince. The djinn had granted the boy’s request, though not in the way that Aladdin had intended.

This is not that story.

_ One _

Severus Tobias Prince Snape watched from the bushes hungrily as Lily Evans flew through the air, landing on the hard asphalt as though it was a down pillow. His mother had warned him that as he grew so would the urge to find a Master or Mistress. He’d been watching Lily Evans for a long time, and now he wanted nothing more than to hand over his ring and give her three wishes. 

She picked up a flower and made it open and close its petals. Severus opened and closed his fists along with it, concentrating as hard as he could until he heard the two girls gasp. In the center of the flower, he knew, the daisy’s eye had been replaced by a ring carrying a jewel as black as his own.

“How’d you do that?” Petunia demanded.

“I didn’t,” Lily said. “At least, I didn’t _ mean _ to do it.”

“You didn’t do it,” Severus said, coming out from his hiding place in the bushes. Petunia shrieked, but Lily just stared at him, fascinated. “I did.”

“How?” she asked. 

“It’s magic,” he said. “We both have it. You’re a witch, and so’s my mum, and I’m a wizard.”

“But what’s with the ring?” Lily said. Severus smiled.

“I’m not just a wizard,” he said. “I’m part djinn, too. If you put that on, you’ll be my Mistress, and that means that I’ll have to do three wishes for you, no matter what they are. Maybe,” his voice went low, “maybe if I’m _ really _lucky you’ll use your last wish to free me for good.”

“Don’t listen to him, Lily,” Petunia said, eyeing him warily. “Magic doesn’t exist, and even if it did-”

“I wouldn’t trick her,” Severus snapped. “I _ chose _ her.” Lily put on the ring, and instantly Severus felt anchored, felt _ whole _.

“You said you’d do anything I asked of you?” Lily said.

“Any three things you wish,” Severus said. Lily nodded, considering him for a moment.

“Am I really a witch?” Severus nodded. “And magic is real?” He nodded again. “Then I wish for you to teach me magic.”

“Of course, Mistress,” Severus said, mind and magic already bending to complete the immensity of the task ahead.

_ One _

Severus’s mum had not wanted him to go to Hogwarts.

She had a million excuses, of course. Djinn magic was the wild, untamed sort, so there was no need for him to learn the foolish wand-waving of human magicians. Djinns were viewed with suspicion due to their reputation for trickery, and the risk of him being caught by an unsuitable master was too high. Besides, they were poor, and the sooner Severus could get to work the better.

Privately, Severus thought that her own unwise choice of Master was the reason. She could hardly disappear with him while still tied to the man whose first wish had been for her to be his wife.

In the end, Severus had worn her down. He _ needed _ to go to Hogwarts, he argued. He had a Mistress who wished for him to teach her magic, and he could hardly do that without access to a wand and the human library. In the end, his mum had been forced to relent, though he could tell that she was still angry with him.

Getting the Headmaster to allow him in was a different matter entirely.

Djinn were volatile. Djinn were traitorous. A djinn had never been allowed into Hogwarts before, and Dumbledore seemed to think that, if Severus was admitted, he would twist first the students’ words then their minds to some dangerous cause. Severus tried to argue that he only wanted to serve his Mistress, that he had no need to serve anyone else when he was still intent on his Mistress’s first wish, but in the end there was only one way that he would be allowed to fulfill his purpose.

“I wish,” Dumbledore said as he contemplated the ring that Severus had given him, “for you to never harm the students of Hogwarts except in self-defense.”

“Yes, Master,” Severus said, mind already tracing all the ways around his Master’s wish. “Master, may I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Dumbledore said, as though he didn’t hold Severus’s will in his hands.

“When you have had two wishes, would you use the third to set me free? If I am no longer at my Mistress’s will, I mean.” Dumbledore studied him carefully, and Severus could tell that he was found wanting.

“We’ll see,” said his new Master.

_ Two _

“You deliberately disobeyed me!”

“They tried to _ kill _me!”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Severus glared mulishly up at Dumbledore, unwilling to give him an inch. “Because of you, Mr. Lupin could have been put down as a dangerous animal-”

“Which he is,” Severus muttered.

“Just as you are a dangerous djinn. Mr. Lupin is an innocent in all this, why can’t you see that?”

“Him? Innocent? He runs around with his little gang, he doesn’t do _ shit _ to stop them even though he’s a prefect-”

“And Black. I thought I wished for you to not tempt any of the students to evil.”

“I didn’t tempt him to anything. He was the one who decided that a just punishment for nosiness was murder.”

“If you didn’t always harass them-”

“Harass them? They harass me!”

“And as for nosiness, don’t think I don’t know about you sneaking around the Restricted Section. Why would a djinn want to learn of the Dark Arts except for evil?”

“They aren’t for me, they’re for my Mistress,” Severus said, only lying slightly. Now that he and Lily were at Hogwarts, he had to stay one step ahead of the teachers to have any hope of fulfilling her wish. The Restricted Section was only one of his methods, though one of the ones he liked best.

“Ah, yes, your _ Mistress _-”

“And, besides, you can’t act like a djinn’s pure evil when you’ve got a pet werewolf running around. Got tired of wishing for loyalty and decided to get a slobbering dog, did you?”

“You cannot be allowed to spread this around. It will ruin his life.”

“Make me.”

“Very well,” said Dumbledore gravely. “I wish for you to never speak of Remus Lupin’s unfortunate condition. He is, after all, an innocent in all this.”

“Yes, Master,” Severus said. Inside, he felt something akin to satisfaction. Two wishes down and one to go before he was free of Dumbledore, and as for the phrasing… well, he was more than capable of working with _ that _.

_ Two _

“I’m sorry-”

“I’m not interested!”

“I’m sorry-”

“Save your breath!” Staying there, facing his Mistress when she obviously didn’t want him there, was the hardest thing he’d ever done, even though she hadn’t made it her wish for him to leave. It was implied, really.

“Look, I didn’t mean to - to say that. It just-”

“Slipped out?” Lily shook her head. “Jesus, Sev, you call everyone of my birth Mudblood. Why should I be any different?”

“You’re my Mistress,” he said. _ You’re my friend. _ Lily gave a bitter, humorless laugh.

“You think that means anything?” she said. 

“You could wish for me to - You could wish _ anything _.”

“But I don’t want to wish it,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to wish it. You have to be a good person on your own. I’ve made excuses for you for years-”

“And you won’t have to anymore. If you just-”

“I can’t be your moral compass, Sev. You have to do that yourself.”

“But-”

“And it doesn’t have anything to do with you being part-djinn!” She took the ring, _ his _ ring, off her finger and threw it at him. “You want a wish? I wish you’d never talk to me again!” 

Severus opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Still, Lily seemed to interpret the look in his eyes perfectly.

_Three _

“No, better yet, I wish that you’d never _ communicate _ with me ever again!” The portrait hole swung closed between them. It was only when he was fully cut off from his Mistress that Severus was allowed to scream.

_ One _

Giving his ring away a third time had been an easy decision. As a Master, the Dark Lord was almost ideal. He had a vision that included the djinn, included them like it included the rest of the creatures attached to the wild magic. He had the will to make his wishes matter - and enough pomp and circumstance to ensure that Severus would be able to find ways to twist the wishes to his _ own _ will.

The Dark Lord’s first wish was appropriately ceremonial. In front of all the Death Eaters, Severus gave over the ring and presented his left arm to his new Master.

“I wish,” the Dark Lord said, “for you serve me body and soul.”

“Of course, Master,” Severus said. From the grumbling around him as he received the Dark Mark, such deference sat badly with the other Death Eaters, which only made it more likely that he would become a favorite. 

Later, after he realized what he’d done, what he’d given himself to willingly, and after he had returned himself to Dumbledore in truth, the Headmaster would ask him how he managed to get around such an absolute wish.

“It’s simple enough, Master,” Severus said with a cold curl of his lip. “The Dark Lord wished for me to serve him body and soul, but _ only _ body and soul. I have followed his orders in body easily enough, and if I have any soul to speak of I suppose it is his. But ‘the mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.’ He wished for no claim over that.”

“Convenient for you,” Dumbledore said, “to be able to blame all the things you do for him on a wish.”

“On the contrary,” Snape said, “I’ve been reliably informed that my morality, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with me being part-djinn.”

_ Two _

The Dark Lord’s second wish was an exact copy of his first. Severus didn’t bother informing him that being given a new ring on account of the old one being blasted to pieces during your former body’s destruction didn’t reset the wishes unless the djinn specifically said that it did. He was so close to being free of his most hideous Master.

_ Three _

For humans, the unspoken is nearly as important as the spoken. For a djinn, the unspoken is immaterial. The only thing they need to listen to is the content of the spoken wish. Wizards often see this as manipulative. Wizards don’t understand any more about magic than what can be thrown out of a wand.

Most of the time listening to the content meant that Severus was looking for ways around the unspoken intent of his Masters. As he spied for the Dark Lord and for Dumbledore, he found himself falling back more and more on taking an overly broad view of things.

“After all,” he told Dumbledore one evening not long after Black had gotten himself killed, “I called you Master before the Dark Lord. Your wishes take precedence if I decide that they do.”

“You exposed Lupin.”

“Lupin missed his Wolfsbane and nearly murdered three students,” Snape said smoothly. “He is no longer an innocent. But I am speaking of your first wish.”

“Oh?”

“It was… phrased broadly. Too broadly. If I had wished, it would have been easy enough to get around.”

“And yet you didn’t.”

“Oh, I did,” Severus said. “I still do, when I have to. But if I look at it in all its broadness, in all it could ever imply or encompass, and at the same time limit myself as narrowly as possible in doing the Dark Lord’s bidding, well,” he gave his Master a cold, shark-like grin, “the Dark Lord has requested that I encourage my Slytherins to his side.”

“And you have found a way around it?”

“Of course. After all, there are more ways to harm than the mere physical. Hell, even spying on your behalf could be seen as an extension of the principle that those who do not act against evil are enabling it.”

“Excellent, if unsound logic.”

“The logic doesn’t need to be sound,” Severus said. “It simply needs to _ exist _.” For a moment he thought that he saw something strange and sorrowful in the old man’s eyes, but it was gone before he could be certain. It wasn’t until later that he realized the reason why.

Severus’s logic was shattered when Dumbledore revealed the true breadth of his task to him.

It made too little, and at the same time too much sense. Of _ course _ the boy was a horcrux. Of _ course _ the boy must die. It seemed almost inevitable that the last remaining scrap of his first Mistress would have to be pointed to the end by his hand.

Unless…

“I cannot do it,” Severus said.

“You must.”

“No, you don’t understand. I _ can’t _. You wished yourself for me to never harm a student, and telling a boy to go commit suicide is certainly included under that.”

“Severus, I know that you can find a way around that,” Dumbledore said. Severus crossed his arms.

“Perhaps,” he said, “but the real question is whether I _ wish _ to find a way around it.”

“It’s the only way.”

“Are you really so certain?”

“As certain as I possibly can be,” Dumbledore said gravely. “I am sorry, Severus. I know you have begun to care for the boy.” Severus gave a bitter laugh.

“Even after all these years, you don’t understand what it is to be a djinn,” he said. “It isn’t like being a human, Master. It is having a hole scraped out of your chest that only the wishes of others can fill. It is the agony of all your magic begging you to obey.”

“You’re manipulating me.”

“Is it working?” Severus shot back. “I have _ tried _, Master. I have considered every word, every potential comma. I have twisted my bindings as far as they can be twisted, and still you want me to go further. Yes, I care for the boy. How could I not? He is the son of my Mistress, the same way the students are my Master’s charges.”

“Is that really all they are to you?”

“It is all I can allow them to be! It is only because I can twist things this far that I have been able to narrow the Dark Lord’s wish. If they were not yours, if Potter was not Lily’s, there would be nothing preventing my Master’s wish from applying to them as well. I am _ trying _ to be a good person.”

“And what if I set you free?” Severus felt as though he’d been punched in the throat. “Would you be able to tell Harry then?”

“You really don’t understand anything, do you?” Severus said. “You can’t wish me free anymore, Master. It’s too late.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that, if you do make that wish, I will no longer be obligated to fulfill your wishes - but I will still be tied to the Dark Lord until he uses his third wish and I make that wish reality.” Now it was Dumbledore’s turn to look struck with pain. “I will have no way of working around his orders. You might as well torture the students yourself.”

“I did,” Dumbledore paused, “I did hope to free you, Severus.”

“Master, you used your second wish when I was a fifth year. You could have freed me at any point from then until I took the Dark Mark after I graduated.”

“I was planning to free you after your seventh year.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what? My revenge?”

“Your power. Djinn have - _ You _ have access to power beyond what a wizard can fathom. How was I supposed to believe that you wouldn’t use that power unwisely.”

“I probably would have,” Severus admitted. “I was… angry, very angry. I had come to Hogwarts for my Mistress, and by the time I left I had lost her and gained only you - and I didn’t see you as much more than a jailer. I wanted a Master who would use me against you. I _ did _ want revenge.” He paused. “But that doesn’t make what you did right.”

“I know.”

“Even the most powerful human magicians are allowed their freedom. They are allowed to use their powers as they wish. If you were half as good a man as you think yourself to be, you would have realized that.”

“I know,” Dumbledore said again.

“Not to mention,” Severus said, “that I wouldn’t be half as restricted as I am now. I would have gone to the Dark Lord likely as not, but I would have been free to _ leave _. Or stay, or spy, or anything in between. I would have had the choice of change.” There was a faint, sad smile on Dumbledore’s face. “What?”

“You seem to have found a way to that choice even with Voldemort as your Master,” he said. “No thanks to me, I know. Still, you have fought him, even when it seemed that you should have never had that choice.”

“I have tried to serve you-”

“And your Mistress, I know. Still, I wish-” Dumbledore stopped, catching himself. Severus snorted. “I will do what I can. It won’t be freedom, but…”

“Master?” Severus said.

“Severus,” Dumbledore said, “I wish for you to follow your own wishes.”

_ One _

Severus knew, or really he suspected, that Potter and his friends would return to Grimmauld Place.

He stayed there for weeks, always invisible, waiting for them. He was still getting used to the way the wild magic coursed within him, inclining vaguely towards the Dark Lord but amiable enough to being redirected towards his own wishes. If this was less than freedom, he didn’t know how he could survive all bonds being cut. 

Dumbledore’s last wish had made playing his part more difficult - however infuriating he sometimes was, Severus had never wanted to kill the Headmaster - but it also gave him more room to act. The djinn knew that none of them, not his Masters, not his Mistress, would ever approve of his plan, but he couldn’t stand aside and allow Potter to be slaughtered like an animal.

Finally, the night after the Ministry fell, Potter, Granger, and Weasley arrived.

Severus bent his magic to his _ own _ will, the feeling of his powers obeying him and him alone as intoxicating as ever. This was what _ he _ wished: that when the children entered the kitchen, their eyes would immediately find the ring on the table. It was identical to the one that Lily had thrown back at him, identical to the one buried with Dumbledore, identical to the one on the Dark Lord’s hand. It was his hope that the degree of freedom granted to him by Dumbledore’s third wish would hold even if he gave himself to another Master or Mistress.

“What’s that?” Weasley said. 

“I don’t know,” Potter said. “I don’t think it belongs to Sirius, anyways. I’ve never seen it before.” Severus’s invisible lip curled as he thought of having _ Black _ as a Master.

“I’ve read about rings like that,” Granger said. “There are several things it _ could _be, but it’s most likely the home of a djinn.”

“A djinn?” Potter said. “Like Aladdin?”

“Something like Aladdin,” Granger said. “They’re incredibly powerful magical creatures that give you three wishes if you do the right thing with their vessel, but they’re known for trickery and manipulation.”

“Still,” said Potter, his hand moving forward as though it was a magnet, “Dumbledore barely gave us anything. We can use all the help we can get.”

“Harry-” But Potter had touched the ring, which meant that Severus could go to the next stage of his plan. Disguising his voice with a quick spell, he began to speak.

“What do you wish of me, Master?” he said. All three of the children jumped and looked around wildly. Severus grinned. This would be fun.

“Er, hi,” said Harry. “Who’re you?”

“I am the djinn that inhabits your ring,” Severus said. “You are now my Master, and I grant you three wishes.”

“Um, okay. Would you mind not calling me Master?”

“Is that your first wish?”

“No! It’s just, you know, I’d rather not be called that. It seems a bit…” Potter made a sort of squiggle in the air with his hand. “You know.”

“No,” Severus said. “I don’t. What would you have me call you, Master?”

“Just Harry,” Potter - no, _ Harry _ said. 

“Very well,” Severus said, feeling very uncomfortable. “Mas- _ Harry _, may I make a request?”

“Sure.” Granger gave him a sharp look. She was clever, that girl, and right to be cautious of a djinn.

“I have said that I will grant you three wishes,” Severus said slowly. “A djinn’s greatest wish is always to be free. Perhaps, if you are an uncommonly kind Master, you will save your third wish until I ask you to use it to free me.”

“Why not just ask me to free you right now?” Severus gave him an incredulous look, though seeing as the djinn was invisible the effect was quite lost on Potter.

“Because, if I am not mistaken, a powerful magical being would be a great asset to you in your current task.”

“Oh,” Harry said. “Right.” Granger was looking more skeptical by the minute, but Severus could tell that she wasn’t going to oppose using him altogether. They were in too dire straits for that.

“Do you have a first wish, Harry?” he said.

“Um, yeah, sure, alright,” Harry said. “Djinn - Do you have a name?” Severus choked.

“Just djinn is fine,” he said.

“Djinn, I wish for you to help us find the horcruxes.” Severus nearly rolled his eyes, then remembered he was invisible and decided to roll his eyes for real.

“You’re lucky I’m on your side, boy,” he said. “You leave far too much open to interpretation and chance.”

_ Two _

Severus was wretched from his dead Master’s desk by the frantic rubbing of one of his rings. He barely had a chance to turn himself invisible before he was in the bedroom of a cottage, staring into the jaws of a giant snake.

“I wish for you to save us!” Harry yelled over the sound of glass breaking. When fulfilling a wish, Severus didn’t even need to consider using his wand. He lashed out with a wave of pure magical energy, blasting Nagini into a mess of blood and guts. The snake painted the walls, and Severus could feel one of the tasks of Harry’s first wish fall away. Harry and Granger stood behind him, panting, wide-eyed.

“You need to leave this place,” Severus said after disguising his voice once again. “The Dark Lord will be here soon. He has felt his horcrux’s destruction.”

“Where-” The children were useless, shell-shocked by the sheer brutality of Severus’s methods. He grabbed each of their arms, ignoring the way they flinched from him, and apparated them to the first place he could think of.

The djinn had not been back to Spinner’s End since before his Master’s death. The previous Easter had been spent clearing it of any sign that anyone but the poorest of Muggles had ever lived there - when Severus died, there could be nothing to endanger the Order left for the Dark Lord to find. As a result, the kitchen was bare, with only a wooden table in the center of the room where a cauldron had once been placed.

“Where are we?” Granger said, sounding as though she expected Death Eaters to pop out of the oven at any moment.

“We are somewhere the Dark Lord cannot find you,” Severus said. He hesitated, but he _ did _ wish to help them farther than made necessary by Harry’s wish. He conjured two chairs at the table and lit a fire in the grate. “Sit. You look hungry.” They obeyed him, though Granger looked ready to bolt at any second. He lit the stovetop and brought out a carton of eggs that had not been in the house a moment before.

“The snake was a horcrux,” Harry said. “That means we only need to find Hufflepuff’s cup and the mystery horcrux, and then we’re done. We can kill Vol- You-Know-Who.”

“Indeed,” Severus said. “Though I fear that my actions have complicated that task. The Dark Lord now knows that you are destroying his horcruxes. Worse, he now knows that you have a djinn at your disposal.”

“Why would he know that?” Granger said.

“Djinn magic is very… distinctive if you know what you are looking for, and the Dark Lord certainly knows that.”

“You call him the Dark Lord,” Granger said. Severus paused in his work, which left the pan smoking slightly in midair. “Only Death Eaters call him that. Is that your trick? Making it look like we control you and then-”

“I would never hurt my Master,” Severus said.

“Does that apply to You-Know-Who as well?”

“I destroyed one of his horcruxes.”

“Only because I wished for you to,” Harry said.

“You wished for me to help you find the horcruxes. You didn’t say anything about destroying them.”

“For you to save us, I mean.”

“That didn’t require killing Nagini.”

“What about this, then?” Harry drew a chain from around his neck, revealing a large locket encrusted with silver and emeralds. “Will you destroy this?”

“Is that your third wish?”

“No, it’s just a request. No wishing involved.” Harry placed it on the table. Severus could only stare.

“You are making this very difficult, Master,” he said.

“Are you a Death Eater?”

“You still are not asking the right questions.”

“Are you on You-Know-Who’s side?”

“No,” Severus said, “I am not.” Harry instantly relaxed.

“Why didn’t you just say so?”

“Do you still not understand the power of words?” Severus said. “I am not on his side, but I am, strictly speaking, a Death Eater. More than that, I am _ his _.” Granger jumped up from her seat.

“What?” she said.

“Sit down, Granger,” Severus said contemptuously. “If he had wished for me to kill you, you would be dead already. Fortunately the Dark Lord is nearly as unwise with his wishes as Harry, though that is mostly due to his propensity for the theatrical. He has only one wish left, and I can only hope that he continues to be both foolish and convinced of his own lack of foolishness.”

“You expect us to believe that you are working against him?” Granger said, crossing her arms. Severus fixed her with his best disappointed professor glare, forgetting for a moment that he was invisible.

“Tell me, Granger,” he said, “who do you think brought the ring to Harry in the first place?”

_ Three _

“You have been a good and faithful djinn, Severus,” the Dark Lord said.

“Thank you, Master,” Severus said, trying to quell the sick feeling in his gut. He had a feeling that the Dark Lord was about to use his third wish, and the last thing he wanted was to make his Master paranoid in these final moments. 

“That is why I truly regret the necessity of this wish,” the Dark Lord said. “But, if I am not mistaken, there is a reason the Elder Wand doesn’t work for me.”

“Master?” This made no sense. This was off-script, completely off-script. What the hell did a children’s story have to do with any of this?

“I took this wand, as you know, from the grave of Albus Dumbledore.” Severus nearly flinched at the mention of his dead Master. “But that is not enough to make me its Master.” Severus closed his eyes as he realized where the Dark Lord was going with this. “You killed him, Severus. And for my last wish, I will be ensuring that it passes on to me.”

“What is it you wish, Master?” Severus said dully.

“I wish for you to die.” 

Severus’s hands moved of their own accord to his throat. They tightened, cutting off his breath, bringing desperate tears to his eyes. He had thought he had a chance. One more wish from the Dark Lord, and he would have been able to do as _ he _wished when it came to his former Master. Hell, he would have been able to be completely free - Harry, he suspected, would have been happy enough to use his last wish on the djinn’s freedom.

He didn’t wish to die. Severus wished to _ live _.

_ I wish for you to follow your own wishes _.

Severus’s fingers loosened slightly. He had fallen to the ground at some point, dizzy from the lack of oxygen. The orders of the dead warred with the orders of the living, keeping him suspended between life and death.

“I wish-” Severus choked out. “I wish-”

“Djinn, I wished for you to die! Grant my wish!” Severus couldn’t help the wild grin that came to his face as he stared into his Master’s bloody eyes.

_ One _

“No,” the djinn choked out, “I wish for you to die.”

A djinn’s logic is a bit like a pinball machine. Each wish is batted about, thrown against obstacles and into pitfalls until it gains a life of its own, turned against the game and towards the djinn’s own goals. Severus had become more and more adept at playing with logic over the years, but this, _ this _ was his masterwork.

_ Three _ \- Severus must die. There was no getting around that, no shaking the inevitable. But death comes to everyone, even a djinn.

_ One _ \- He couldn’t hurt any student of Hogwarts. He couldn’t tell Harry that he was a horcrux, even though

_ One _ \- He was charged with helping Harry find the horcruxes. He could expand this easily, too easily, into being charged with _ destroying _the horcruxes as well, which led him to

_ Three _ \- Dumbledore had wished for him to do what he wished. He wished to live. He wished for the Dark Lord to die. He wished, more than anything, more than his own life, for the son of his Mistress to be able to live in spite of the horcrux that had to be destroyed for his own wish to be fulfilled.

“I wish,” he choked out, “for you to die _ for good _.”

For good. For forever, for the sake of the right side, for the sake of his Mistress and his two other Masters. Severus twisted the wild magic that Dumbledore had always feared within him, turned the fabric of reality to his own goals, his own wishes.

_ I wish for you to teach me magic _.

This was quite the lesson.

The Dark Lord screamed. From behind the tunnel entrance, another scream sounded, but Severus couldn’t - or, rather, he _ didn’t wish _ to stop it now. The piece of soul in Harry’s scar flew from its resting place, throwing itself into the Dark Lord. For a moment his Master’s face shifted, becoming roguishly handsome once again. Then, with a final wrench of effort, the Dark Lord was blasted to pieces.

Severus fell over on his side, fingers tightening once again. That burst of magic had taken too much out of him, and he didn’t have the energy left for wishing. He didn’t know whether he _ would _ have wished that, not anymore. 

There was precious little to wish for, really, now that the Dark Lord was dead. He wasn’t fool enough to think that he could get his old life back, not after killing Dumbledore. As a human he would have been thrown in Azkaban; as a djinn, he would be executed or Kissed.

Three pairs of feet scrambled towards him. He didn’t have much left, but he had enough to open his eyes and look at his Master.

“You’re the djinn,” Harry said. Severus nodded. “You - You killed Voldemort, even though he wished for you to kill yourself. Even though he was your Master.” Severus nodded again.

“Harry,” Granger whispered, “do something.” Darkness was falling, Severus’s vision fading. “And don’t be an idiot this time.” Someone knelt next to the djinn, a hand solid and comforting on his shoulder and breath hot on his ear.

_ Three _

“Djinn,” Harry whispered, “I wish for you to be free.”


End file.
